The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see
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The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see resource for landlubbers and mariners alike.

Carol Gafford is a public librarian, family historian, amateur archivist and book savior. She is currently the youth services/outreach librarian at the Swansea Public Library and volunteers for several museum and historical societies including the Marine Museum at Fall River, the Swansea Historical Society and the Bristol Historical and Preservation society. She is the editor of Past Times, the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and is always looking for a new project to take on.

Fans of classic guitrar-based pop music might be wondering where the new blood for that timeless sound is coming from, but one answer ought to be The Postelles from New York City.

The local calendar of music shows has been jammed lately with soldout concerts from performers, DJs, and groups that use all manner of electronic gizmos to craft their otherworldly sounds. But for the 100 college age people who showed up at Brighton Music Hall in Boston Monday night, it was a delectable return to the basics of rock 'n' roll, as the Manhattan quartet delivered an exhilirating headlining set of its joyous guitar pop.

The Postelles' second album, "And It Shook Me," is due out on April 23, and their 13-song set included several new tunes from the forthcoming CD. The band is just finishing off the last few gigs on a lengthy tour of the United States and Canada, where they were co-billed with the Hamilton, Ontario quintet The Arkells, another fine young band with vintage guitar-rock roots. Having some goofy fun on the tour's last week, the two bands did some rowdy cover tunes; The Postelles did a raucous Ramones song, while The Arkells covered The Clash, as well as a soulful take on a Ben E. King standard.

Both of the headliners share some musical foundation in the 1950-60's rock 'n' roll of bands like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and perhaps most obviously The Kinks, yet also show traces of the styles that have come since then. The Postelles' songwriting has the kind of smart, deceptively simple perspective that Marshall Crenshaw's music has, for example, yet strains it through a kind of post-punk, '90's dance-rock sensibility, not unlike The Strokes. That should be no surprise, since Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. has been an early supporter who produced four tracks on the band's eponymous debut album in 2011.

The Postelles became a band simply from going to the same high school and loving the same kinds of music. They were playing in New York City clubs by their senior year of high school. Singer/guitarist Daniel Balk, lead guitarist David Dargahi, drummer Billy Cadden and bassist John Speyer were separated for a while by college--Dargahi at Boston University, Speyer at Harvard, and Balk at The New School--but soon decided to reunite and concentrate on the band. An EP released in 2008 was enough to get The Postelles slots on the Lollapalaooza and Bonnaroo festival tours, and Hammond became a big help to them as they navigated the recording business.

But The Postelles are still pretty much in the cult band category, a wonderful secret for rock fans like the enthusiastic hundred who danced, hopped around, and sang along to Monday's show. There is, no doubt, hope that the new album will help the band make the next jump to bigger venues, and part of the burgeoning promotional push includes a free download of the impossibly vibrant new tune "Caught By Surprise," available starting Monday (March 4) on their website.

About the only quibble we'd have with the Postelles' invigorating set last night would be its brevity--even with three encore songs it clocked in at just over 45 minutes. On the other hand their music is based upon the classic three-minute pop song structure, so they packed in a lot of tunes, and the night kept moving along briskly.

The chiming pop guitars of the new tune "Running Red Lights" opened their show, with Balk's strong baritone voice effectively cutting through the mix. But the Postelles' chestnut "1-2-3 Stop" had such charming guitar hooks, older fans might've been thinking about the Fab Four from Liverpool. And then of course, resistance was futile during the exuberant "Sound the Alarms" from their 2011 CD.

"Caught By Surprise" could be a huge single, with its uncanny combination of shimmering guitars and pulsating beat, as it shifts back and forth from sensitive ballad to sizzling rocker. Those 1960's comparisons were impossible to avoid during "Hey Little Sister," which evoked The Beatles, The Kinks, and maybe, for trivia fans, Freddie & the Dreamers for its sheer energy and silly dance moves from the band. Dargahi sang lead on "Hey Little Sister," displaying a versatile tenor that makes for a good contrast with Balk's voice.

The Postelles modified those classic elements through the 1980s/90s dance club rock of bands like The Strokes on "Sleep on the Dancefloor," a sort of infectiously swirling blend of guitars and rhythms. On the forthcoming album, Balk sings "Pretend Its Love" with the lovely Alex Winston, but performing it without her Monday, he used an acoustic guitar to give it an appealing folk-rock jangly sound, and handled the vocals superbly by himself.

The Postelles turned the old Wreckless Eric gem "I'd Go the Whole Wide World" into an amiable raveup. That song has also been done by The Monkees, and Monday's take probably most resembled a punky rendition of the Monkees', with just a hint of self-parody. That kind of appealing self-deprecation was also evident in "(I Want to Love You, But You) Can't Stand Still," which was cheeky in an affectionate sort of way.

The new song "Tidal Wave," kind of a rock 'n' roll love story in three minutes, ended the regular set with another heady dose of that Beatles/Kinks/Strokes guitar pop. The Postelles announced their second encore song as a nod to their native city by another NYC group, before launching into a lusty "Beat on the Brat" from The Ramones. The night ended with a spirited rendition of their own "White Night," a song that takes their classic pop sound and injects some punky, garage-rock, Kinks-meet-Velvet Underground grit into the mix.

Earlier the Arkells turned a lot of heads with their bouyant 45 minute set. The Canadian lads push their own guitar-rock sound in a bit more of an arena rock category, but also meld those '60s sounds with updated dance-rock underpinnings--mainly through their subtly brilliant keyboardist. The Arkells also boast terrific songwriting, often in a storytelling vein. The infectious ballad "Kiss Cam," for instance, told a charming tale about true love "in the cheap seats.." being immortalized on the big screen.

The Arkells kicked into a more roots-rocking mode for the pell mell charge through "On Paper." We did not catch the night's first band, The Ambassadors, but when their singers joined The Arkells onstage for an impromptu jam through Ben E. King's classic "Stand By Me," Sam from the Ambassadors had the crowd cheering with his dead-on falsetto soul swoops.

Offering up a loud and rowdy "Rock the Casbah" certainly had the audience yelping for more from the Arkells. But perhaps the best song they did was "Where U Goin'?", which rode a shimmering foundation of pop guitars, yet had those keyboard lines updating the sound, as the singer detailed the pain-we-don't-want-to-admit of a difficult breakup.

Keep the synthesizers, computers, DJs and assorted electronic gimmickry, and just give me more bands like The Postelles and The Arkells, with that timeless guitar pop sound, and some tasty new flavors.